November 14, 2018

Herrell sues to impound Doña Ana County absentee ballots

Republican congressional candidate Yvette Herrell filed a suit Tuesday, asking a judge to order the impound of absentee ballots in a key southern New Mexico county after she lost to Xochitl Torres Small in last week’s election.

Herrell filed the suit in state district court and asked the court to order State Police to take control of absentee ballots and associated documents from Doña Ana County. She also wants an investigation into “reports of chain-of-custody issues and other improprieties” though she provided no evidence of problems.

In the filing, Herrell claims she was “stripped of [the] title” of winner of the election because of the results from the Doña Ana County absentee ballots. Some media outlets had already projected Herrell to win, but at least one, the Albuquerque Journal, did not know of the absentee ballots. The outlets have since called the race in favor of Torres Small.

Media projections of who wins a race are not legally binding.

Doña Ana County announced hours after polls closed, and after the clock turned to midnight, that 8,000 absentee ballots were still not part of the unofficial results reported to the Secretary of State. Of those, 4,000 were yet to be counted.

When the county finished counting those ballots and reported the results, Torres Small took the lead. The Democrat’s lead expanded further when provisional and other ballots that had to be hand-tallied were counted earlier this week. Torres Small currently leads by more than 3,500 votes, or 1.8 percentage points.

“Xochitl was honored to receive a resounding majority of the votes cast, and she looks forward to working with all southern New Mexicans to help improve our health care system, fix our broken immigration system, and grow our local economies,” campaign manager Brian Sowydra said in a statement in response to the filing.

Since the election, Herrell has largely ignored the media, similar to her pre-election media strategy which included not participating in any debates and rarely responding to requests from local media. However, Herrell appeared on Fox News this weekend and questioned the results of the election while not providing any details, echoing Republicans in other states and President Donald Trump. Herrell’s last statement to local media was a brief statement after Doña Ana County finished the vote tally.

Herrell commented on the lawsuit on her Facebook page Wednesday morning, but provided no further details.

“Yesterday our campaign made the decision to file a Petition in Dona Ana County District Court to allow for a review of the absentee ballot process that many voters have expressed concern over,” the Facebook post reads. “We feel a responsibility to look into these matters in an effort to provide voters the answers they deserve, and believe this is a common sense step to ensure the integrity of this election.”

The state canvassing board will meet to certify election results next week.

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All week, we look for stories that help New Mexicans better understand what’s happening with water, climate, energy, landscapes and communities around the region. Thursday morning, that news goes out via email.

After inspecting absentee ballots from the 2nd Congressional District’s most-populous county, Republican Yvette Herrell decided not to challenge the results of the election she lost to Democrat Xochitl Torres Small in November. Herrell announced the news Monday, the deadline to challenge the results.

Early voting in one key southern New Mexico county is not only outpacing past years, it is so far beating out all other counties in the state. Through the end of Monday, 4,304 Doña Ana County voters already cast their ballots either by early in-person voting or by returning absentee ballots.

A day after Republican Yvette Herrell closed the door on her 2018 campaign, she announced she would run for the seat again in 2020 and challenge Democrat Xochitl Torres Small, who narrowly defeated Herrell in November. "I'm running for Congress because I believe New Mexicans deserve a Representative who will work hard every day to keep growing our economy, safeguard our way of life from government overreach, and push for solutions and funding to protect our borders,” Herrell said.

A day after Republican Yvette Herrell closed the door on her 2018 campaign, she announced she would run for the seat again in 2020 and challenge Democrat Xochitl Torres Small, who narrowly defeated Herrell in November. "I'm running for Congress because I believe New Mexicans deserve a Representative who will work hard every day to keep growing our economy, safeguard our way of life from government overreach, and push for solutions and funding to protect our borders,” Herrell said.

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Matthew Reichbach is the editor of the NM Political Report. The former founder and editor of the NM Telegram, Matthew was also a co-founder of New Mexico FBIHOP with his brother and one of the original hires at the groundbreaking website the New Mexico Independent. Matthew has covered events such as the Democratic National Convention and Netroots Nation and formerly published, “The Morning Word,” a daily political news summary for NM Telegram and the Santa Fe Reporter.
Matthew has appeared as a panelist for the Society of Professional Journalists’ New Mexico Chapter’s panel on covering New Mexico politics and the legislature.
A native New Mexican from Rio Rancho, Matthew’s family has been in New Mexico since the 1600s.